Prozac and Buspar

I have depression, anxiety, EDNOS (exercise bulimia) and mild OCD. I just recently went back to my psychiatrist last October, after trying life without meds for two years (HELL), due to lack of insurance, which needless to say didn't work out. I was on Effexor 150 mg about 5 years ago. When I went back to my psychiatrist, based on symptoms I was describing, decided to try Prozac 20 mg (which was started SLOWLY, due to my fear of side effects and weight gain), and Buspar, for anxiety and to counter the SSRI sexual side effects. Now when I first started taking the Prozac I almost immediately felt better, then leveled off and my depression & suicidal thoughts slowly went away. The Buspar took about a week to start working but did help my anxiety. I was actually feeling great throughout January but for the past two weeks I have been started to feel crappy again. It's not so much the depression but a return in anxiety. It could be becuase I have started classes again which are making me anxious. Before class yesterday, I was dreading going and my hands were shaking. Once I got through it I was fine, but still it sucks to dread doing something so much.

I think the Buspar works for about 2 weeks and then quits. My pysch started me off at 5mg twice a day, then upping to 10mg twice a day. On the last appt., she upped the Buspar to 15mg twice a day to put it at 30 mg. I am only still on 20mg of Prozac, which I know is a very low dose and will probably have to up. The Buspar does something but seems to crap put after a few weeks My therapist thinks I might want to try Klonopin. She had never even heard of Buspar when I told her my pyschiatrist prescribed it. I have no previous experience with Benzos at all. I have never even taken Xanax. I have always been scared I would get addicted.

I have an appointment with my psychiatrist next week, and I just wanted to know if I should try upping the Buspar or doing away with it all together and trying something else? Anyone else have a similar experience with Buspar?

I was on BuSpar but I've heard on good authority that A LOT of doctors under dose it. Mine did I was taking 20mgs daily then after a few months he realised and went up to 45g but I've heard 60mgs has the best results.

My advice would be to try upping the dose and if that doesn't work try upping the prozac and if that doesn't work another AD? And if all else fails give the benzos a trial?

BuSpar did absolutely nothing for my anxiety. Nothing. Klonopin does. A LOT. I've been on it a year, yes I dependant on it, I take 3mg a day and it makes my quality of life a lot better. Without it, I would NEVER leave the house, answer the phone, or be able to play with my little girl in public. Riding in a car would be difficult, movies would suck, all that. I have never taken more than directed and would never do so because I need it so badly to get by honestly.

I'm scared of when it quits working, when I have to go off it, when I'll be fucked over entirely with anxiety again, but that won't be for a little while now, hopefully.

Then, if you look at my sig, I've tried almost everything for the anxiety. I've just recently been DX'd with some kind of depression, so none of those meds were for depression.

If you are afraid of benzos, you could try AAP's, or something like Neurontin, those work well for a lot of people who are anxious. I'd like to try Neurontin again someday.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I figured I'd need to up the dosages. I'm on a pretty low dose of both meds. This was just because I am such a med phobe and she didn't want me to give up because of side effects and or potential weight gain, which the Prozac has not caused at all. I am trying to maintain a natural healthy weight and not a med induced weight gain. Unfortunately, a lot of the anti-ds cause weight gain. I know Effexor caused an unnatural 20 pound weight gain which I shed almost immediately after going off of it and which triggered my eating disorder to come back...not good. I would also hate to stop the Prozac because it's helped a lot with the depression, better than Effexor ever did. I just hope it's not making my anxiety worse. I do seem to be getting agitated/angry again, which is how my anxiety manifests itself. I don't really get panic attacks, just extremely irritable. The Buspar helps but I'm not sure if it helps enough. I just am not sure if I should go ahead and get rid of it and try Klonopin or something else or try upping the dose, just to have it stop working again. All I know is I felt great for about 3 or 4 weeks. I was able to function, not hate every single person around me, and was living in the moment and not worrying about what catastrophe would happen next. It was glorious. The past 2 weeks I have just been slowly going downhill again. It is just so frustrating...gah

Thanks again for all the responses. They will definitely help when I see my doc next week

Just wanted to chime in about Buspar not working for me. My p-doc actually said to me that it has a very low success rate: When it works, it works great, but it doesn't work for most people.

I am on xanax for anxiety. Klonopin is more standard, I think, but I have a bad reaction to it.

Yeah, most p-docs don't really like BuSpar, mine kinda scoffed when I said I'd been on it. It's like they are just checking to see if the patient will respond to the placebo effect or something. But, again, I was on it by itself, and I've heard that it IS more effective when used with an SSRI or other AD, it really does work for some people. I think the minimun therapeutic dose is 30mg per day, up to 60mg per day if I remember correctly. I only got to 45, I was on it for six months and it never did anything, and increasing to 45mg just made me irritable, so I FINALLY stopped taking it, I was barking up that tree for months!! The good thing about that pill was that I didn't have ANY side effects at all besides being irritable at the highest dose I was on and a little bit of diziness when I first started it.

Emperor, I also felt a little dizzy and tired at first but that wore off in the first week, but yeah, no side effects which is nice. It's interesting that you say that the Buspar made you irritable because that's exactly how I've been feeling.I am not the most patient person in the world, so I can't really tell if it's just me or the meds. I do feel I am getting more emotional and angry about some things that I usually would not take so seriously. I don't expect the meds to be a cure all but something was definetly taking the edge off my anxiety so I could deal my issues, the past two weeks I've felt like I'm taking a step back again. I do admit I'm not quite as bad as I was before (which was suicidal) and I don't expect the meds to be a cure all. I'll be sure to bring this up at my appointment tommorow.

Yeah, definitely bring up the irritability, it could be either drugs. I'm having a hell of a time starting wellbutrin right now and my irritability is through the roof, also anxiety and depression feel worse. Anyway, it could just be a side effect from starting up for you or increasing a dose? I don't know, hopefully it will go away.

Had my appointment today. My psych actually wanted to just increase the Prozac to help my anxiety....I was like ummm "can we try upping the Buspar as well?". She didn't seem to think my irritability was a problem. Just the anxiety, which I know it is somewhat but I kinda feel like it might be the Prozac whichishelping my depression but might be making me cranky. I don't know. I guess I'd rather not take people's bullshit, than have their bullshit make me suicidal, which sounds horrible and I don't know if that makes any sense at all...haha. Sometimes I have hard time deciphering if it's me of if it's them. I do have a tendency to take things too seriously. Something was helping that for a few weeks, and hopefully I can get back there.

Anyways, Prozac was upped to 40mg and Buspar 40 mg twice a day. If the Buspar starts crapping out again, I can take 60 mg of the Buspar. I see her again in 8 weeks. Hopefully, this works out. If not I'm definitely trying something else. I do hate that I had to talk her into upping the Buspar..I feel like such a pusher..haha.

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